By J.G. Pasterjak
Boy howdy, there’s a lot going on with this latest Escalade. It’s a vehicle not unlike those Oreos that the filling machine missed. All the cookie is at one end or the other, and there’s no creamy middle to make up the bulk of the experience.
It’s a car that certainly made me feel a lot of things–some of them amazing, some of them infuriating, but few of them ambivalent. It is, as the kids say, a mood. So let’s talk about it.
First, our test car as equipped ran just a bit over $132,000. That’s a lot of money.
It’s more than I paid for my first house. Heck it’s more than I paid for my second house, and that was in this century.
But on some level, I’m kind of over complaining about how much new cars cost anymore. Most of them seem out of reach of normal people at this point, so the difference between an $80,000 car and a $130,000 car is almost an irrelevant distinction because I don’t have either amount sitting around in my car budget.
And I guess you can’t say Cadillac isn’t putting in some effort for the price of over a dozen nice NC Miatas. The Escalade has the presence and luxury of pretty much any other premium large SUV I’ve been in. I’d stack it up against anything from the Germans, Japanese or British without hesitation. Fit and finish is world-class, driving manners are equally impeccable, and comfort is top notch without being obsequious.
First, let’s talk about what this vehicle–I hesitate to call it a car, because it’s not, but it’s also way too nice to be considered a truck, and “SUV” doesn’t seem to do it justice, either–does well.
The “utility” part of the SUV equation is in full force with this thing, despite its luxurious appointments. Swanky touches like power third-row flatteners may seem like added glitz, but their actual utility shines when you have arms full of gear to stow and not quite enough space to do it in the wayback.
GM’s current tow package is thorough and well thought out, with in-dash menus to customize your trailer setup, monitor its systems and automatically tweak your trailer brakes. The well-placed, onboard cameras offer full, easy access to all corners of the Escalade and great multiple views of the trailer.
It also comes with GM’s Super Cruise, which is available across the brand’s half-ton truck lineup and is probably our favorite current driving aid on the market. Super Cruise’s claim to fame–at least as far as I’m concerned–is that it’s perfectly happy to tow for you, and I’m perfectly happy to let it take over the most boring part of motorsports.
[Is GM’s Super Cruise the answer for those boring cross-country tows?]
Super Cruise allows hands-free cruising on pretty much any U.S. interstate and a growing number of non-interstate highways that are being mapped by the GM team.
The last time we sampled a Super Cruise-equipped vehicle, it couldn’t help us at all on our drive from Ormond Beach, Florida, to our test track in Keystone Heights. That route to the Florida International Rally & Motorsport Park includes a short hop on I-95 followed by 20 miles or so on U.S. 1 and 50-plus miles on Route 100. This time, though, Super Cruise handled close to three-quarters of the driving for us.
Relinquishing control of 10,000-plus pounds of machinery–the Escalade with our BMW 435i project car in tow–to a friendly robot is unsettling at first, but Super Cruise is as good a tow pilot as you could ask for. The smoothness and delicacy of the control inputs make you forget the trailer is even back there.
It’s really a game-changer when it comes to towing. It’s hard to say I’m not going to look at Super Cruise-equipped vehicles as soon as I start shopping for a new truck to replace my Tundra, which is probably going to last forever, so it might be a while.
Speaking of that Tundra, on the same route towing the same load, it gets 12.5-13 mpg. The Escalade got 14.2, with the 6.2-liter V8 never seeming like it was working particularly hard. Out-fuel-economizing a Toyota Tundra is a low bar to clear, but 14-plus while towing a 3600-pound car is nothing to sneeze at.
Okay, now for the other part, and this is where GM seems determined to sour some of its finest achievements with baffling UI decisions. I had to watch a video to figure out how to open the glove box. (It’s a layer or two deep in the DIC menus.)
I never did figure out how to open the hatch without using the key fob. (You press the Cadillac logo, which is not marked in any way or even looks like it could be depressed.) Getting a fuel economy display up on the dash requires a deep dive into DIC menus that aren’t particularly intuitive. Really, just every part of the interface seems needlessly complex.
And look, I get that UI complaints are kind of an auto journalist thing, because when you only have a car for a week at a time, that’s not a lot of time to really get used to a complex UI.
But on the other hand, plenty of companies seem to have this figured out, and their menus are intuitive and easy to interact with. GM, are you trying to turn me into the Joker? Because this is how you get the Joker. Just rip off Apple or Hyundai or a Coke Freestyle machine or any of the screens we interact with every day that are easier to use than your attractive but obtuse setup.
So if you’re in the market for a truly awesome tow rig and have $132,000 to spend and don’t mind spending a few extra days to learn a needlessly complex UI, the Escalade gets two big thumbs up from this guy. A loaded Tahoe will run you about $50,000 less–yeah, north of $80,000 still feels like a lot for a Tahoe–so the basic mechanical and electronic package is available in a slightly less swanky wrapper for a lower price.
But Cadillac has done an exceptional job overall at producing a truly world-class-feeling and -functioning product here. UI frustrations aside, it’s hard to argue with the effectiveness of the package.
